Open MAKE: Time

A collaboration between the Exploratorium, MAKE Magazine, and Pixar Animation Studios, Open MAKE is a monthly program highlighting the tools, techniques, and ingenuity of local Makers. Visitors are invited to participate in tinkering and making activities inside the Tinkering Studio, where Makers from around the Bay Area will share their work. In addition, Dale Dougherty, founder and editor of MAKE Magazine, will interview Featured Makers in the McBean Theater.

This month’s theme will be time. Five Featured Makers will be interviewed in the McBean Theater between 1 and 2 p.m., talking about their work and process, and taking questions from the audience. The interview will also be webcast live! Please click here to watch.

• Five Ton Crane (represented by Alan Rorie, David Shulman, and Sean Orlando) will share their retro-futuristic large installation projects, such as their Raygun Gothic Rocket
• David Forbes will talk about his passion for making clocks and watches with nixie tubes and oscilloscopes.
• Julie Chen describes working with handmade books and printing techniques as a “time based medium.”
• Roger Wood, in addition to setting up a portable workshop in the Tinkering Studio, will talk about making clocks from recycled and found gadgets and mechanical wonders.
• Our very own Nicole Catrett built a homemade stroboscope, which has since become a permanent exhibit on the museum floor.

In the Tinkering Studio, we’ll explore time as a concept through stroboscope photography, an amazing panoramic timelapse by former Featured Maker Ken Murphy, as well as Roger Wood’s clock-making workshop. You’ll also be able to participate in a week-long Sumi Ink Club collective drawing, and see a timelapse of it unfolding (you’ll be in it, and see yourself, if you participate!).

In the skylight area, watch for some of our experiments with time: make a life-sized stop-motion animation, create your own metaphorical clock that expresses your own relationship with time, or dissect a real clock to literally find out what “makes it tick.” There will also be many “Open Makers” from all over the Bay Area showcasing their own experiments with time-keeping and time-observing. Watch out for Make Magazine’s table dedicated to the beloved 555 timer!

All activities and workshops run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and are on a first-come, first-serve basis.